


Dragged Under

by glackedandmullered, orphan_account



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Almost Drowning, Hybrid AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-18
Updated: 2014-08-18
Packaged: 2018-02-13 17:53:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2159727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glackedandmullered/pseuds/glackedandmullered, https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cats are adverse to water, hybrids aren't different.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dragged Under

For all intent and purposes, Michael was human. 

He lived a normal life, work, boyfriends - maybe not totally normal but whatever - and enjoyed his ability to walk on two legs even though sometimes he just wanted to get down on all fours and scale a wall in 2 leaps. Hybridity was just an afterthought to most, yeah sure a lot of people lived with ears on the tops of their heads, horns, tails, hell even wings and claws; but that was just life. Unfortunately for Michael, he took on a few more traits of the feline presence inside him than he would have liked. It wasn’t as if he was the only one. Geoff and Ryan, ram and bull respectively, had the domineering nature, most likely to clash horns together - literally - Jack, as a lion was occasionally prone to possessive bouts of roaring that startled Ray. The youngest lad, a rabbit, hated the way he startled too easily, jumping a foot in the air at the smallest noise, and Gavin was just as scatterbrained as his bird blood suggested. 

Though everyone dealt with their own complexities in their own ways, Michael was left dealing with incessant heats, the inability to stay still at 1am; but most annoyingly, the unadulterated fear of water. It wasn’t just being wet, he could shower with little problem, only feeling a slight discomfort at the water flowing over his body and soaking his fur; but being submerged in water, that was just hell. He felt stupid for it. It wasn’t like his whole body was covered in fur, or that he didn’t understand what the situation was; it just threw him for a loop whenever he tried to take a bath or, in his younger days, swim. 

They had a pool at the house. When they first decided to move in together, all six of them had checked out what must have been 40 properties in the area, 39 of which had no pool; 39 of which they turned down in favor of the _one house that had a goddamn pool._ It was pretty big, long enough to train as a swimmer if they were so inclined, Michael figured the previous owner must have been really into the sport; either way it sat outside, taunting him every time he looked out of his window. The reason why Michael never took part in swimmies had never really come up in the 4 months since they moved in; sure it had been questioned a couple of times when they had gatherings for their friends but Michael just waved off the questions. 

Of course, the other two lads insisted on teasing Michael regarding his disdain for water, joking about pushing him in or giving him a bath. The teasing didn’t stop on the day they all decided to have a barbecue, Gavin and Ray splashing around in the pool already while Ryan and Geoff prepared food and Jack got the barbecue going.

“We should push Michael in,” Gavin snickered to Ray, just for Michael to let out a little growl.

“Don’t you even think about it, Dickie Bitch,” Michael snarled in response, his ears flattened against his curly hair while the other men just smiled and kicked their feet in the water, splashing their little kitty.

“Calm down, Michael. You know we would never do that to you,” Ray reassured, climbing out of the pool and fetching his towel. He dried off his long ears with a pleased look on his face “Toss me a coke?” Ray asked. Michael looked up from his spot, stretched out in the sun, towards the cooler. He pushed himself off the ground and fetched a can of coke and a beer for himself before handing it over to Ray, getting a light peck on the cheek and a ‘thank you’ just as Ryan appeared, carrying two large trays full of various foods for the barbeque. 

It was an accident, after this was all over he would reassure Ray that he understood it was an accident when Ryan knocked into him because he hadn’t been looking.The domino effect ended with Michael slipping on the tile edge, and there was nothing but shooting terror in the few seconds it took for the Ray to knock into him and send him crashing into the pool. 

He hit the bottom of the pool with a thud, head bouncing off the tiles with a sickening crack, and all the breath catapulted out of his lungs like a rocket. His tail, which he was so used to using in his defense, was thoroughly saturated, limp and lifeless, dragging him down like an anchor. Water rushed into his ears, up his nose, and filled his mouth until he was choking on nothing but the liquid surrounding him in his panic. Unfortunately, every choked breath that was drawn in dragged wave after wave of that warm chemical water down his throat, and into his lungs; forcing out all the air and sending his head reeling. Skin feeling like it weighed a thousand pounds, even trying to flail his arms once he was under was an impossibility, and he found himself floating halfway between the surface and the bottom, inwardly panicking with no way to fight it. It barely took him seconds to resign himself to his fate and let the world darken around him, the edges of his vision greying out like a video game death.

_I’m going to die, this is it._

As muffled voices and a sploosh that sounded like someone else entering the water, tiny, jiggling bubbles danced to the surface along with his last ditch attempt at breathing, in the last moments before passing out, he vaguely noticed that the bubbles seemed to be stained red. 

\---

It took about ten seconds after Michael fell into the water for anyone to notice that the lad was in trouble. They laughed, carrying on with their snacks and taking food from Ryan’s trays, expecting Michael to pop up out of the pool, disgruntled at worst, maybe dive out and tackle someone for knocking him in. Neither of those things happened, instead when Jack looked down, his shadowed figure bounced back up towards the surface, not quite reaching it as he seemed to flail weakly before going dangerously still. The thing that made the lion panic and dive in after him, however, was the trickle of cloudy blood that rose up from the bottom. 

Ignoring the squawked scream from Gavin, Jack entered the water less than gracefully and grappled around with his hands to hook them around the limp body and pushed off strongly from the tile. The second he broke the surface Ryan and Geoff were there to take Michael from him, arms reaching out and taking hold of michaels arms to drag him onto the pool edge. Shaking his head to clear the damp mane from his face, Jack climbed out of the water, scrambling over on his knees to where the other Gents had laid Michael out on the concrete.

“Is he okay?” He asked quickly, coughing to clear the water that had rushed into his own mouth in his hurry. They had the man on his side, Ryan furiously rubbing his back while Geoff payed close attention to his face, holding a not-very-steady hand to the pale chest. 

No one replied beyond Ray’s mantra of _I wasn’t gonna do it, I swear, I killed him oh god I killed him,_ his damp ears drooping in concern. Gavin had an arm around the rabbit-boy, wings folded down behind him but one was stretched out just a little to reassure Ray. 

After a few painfully long moments of praying and hoping, Michael came to life, choking and spitting up lung fulls of water onto the concrete. He convulsed painfully against the solid ground as the water stopped, and all that was left was bile that mixed with the liquid on the ground to make vile looking watery vomit puddles by Geoff’s feet. Undeterred, he moved his hand to Michael’s shoulder and soothed him as best he could while the fit ended. 

Ryan cradled his head gently, pulling his hand back when the feline flinched away, disoriented but obviously aware of whatever Ryan had done. Retracting his hand away, he noticed the red fluid on his hands and immediately ducked down to separate the hair around the bleeding wound. 

“It’s just a graze.” Ryan reassured Gavin, who had let out a panicked squawk as soon as he saw the blood decorating the Gents fingertips, “Hand me that towel.” Gavin shakily complied; crumpling the white fabric into a ball as he passed it over, and let Ryan press it to the back of Michaels head. The cat hybrid flattened his ears against his soaking hair, hissing in pain, and Geoff shushed him softly from the front. 

“Can you hear me?” Geoff asked, placing his hand under Michael chin, and tilting his head up. 

Lips quivering and teeth chattering harshly he nodded shakily, “Y-yeah.” He bit into his lip with needle sharp fangs piercing the skin as he whined. Geoff gestured behind Ray for another towel, taking it gratefully when it was passed to him with trembling hands, and wrapped it around Michaels shoulders when Ryan gently raised him up into a sitting position. Michael swayed weakly, his ears still flat against his head, but not as taut; as if there was no energy left in him to hold them. 

“How do you feel?” Geoff shot Gavin a sharp look when the bird scoffed.

“What? Bit of a dumb question isn’t it? He nearly...drowned.” He had to swallow hard before managing to get the last word out, the realisation that Michael could have easily died right there in the pool below them. He staggered back under Geoffs stubborn gaze and had to stumble forward again to right himself when he nearly slipped off the edge, his wings flapping out to balance him.

Suddenly Michael jolted forward with an inhuman yowl, forced back into full consciousness by Gavin stepping directly onto his tail, which had been limply laying on the concrete. 

“Gavin!” Geoff scolded, reaching around Michael’s back to take hold of his poor, abused tail, and pull it round so the lad could sooth himself in his barely awake state. Weak hands stroked the damp fur as he slowly started to fall forward, slipping away from Ryans grasp to come to rest with his head on Geoff’s shoulder. 

“He passed out.” Geoff announced, lifting the lads head just enough to see the closed eyes, and feel the slow but steady breathing against his collarbone. He snaked on hand around the back of Michaels neck and took hold of the towel that had nearly fallen from the graze when he left Ryan’s arms.

Letting the other Gent take care of Michael, Ryan stood, brushing the dirt off the bare skin of his knees as he rounded on the bird who was holding himself still on the very edge of the pool. 

“Good fucking job, Gavin.” Ryan hissed, jabbing him in the arm with one of his horns.

“I didn’t mean to step on his tail!” Gavin cried indignantly, rubbing the sore spot and worriedly checking that the man hadn’t drawn blood. “It’s not like I pushed him in!” Ryan bit the inside of his lip to stop from arguing, it was an accident, getting into that wouldn’t do Michael any good.

Behind them, with Jack’s help, Geoff raised himself up onto his knees and then to his feet with Michael in his arms. The auburn tail subconsciously wrapped itself around the man’s waist, sensing the safety there. 

“Let’s just get him inside and let him sleep.” 

\---

When Michael opened his eyes again, he was wrapped up in, what he thought was, just about every comforter they had in the entire house. A barely-moving lump was right beside him, curled up underneath the blankets with its arms wrapped around Michael’s waist. A quick peek underneath the covers showed that it was Ray, half-asleep with his head resting on Michael’s chest, his fuzzy ears tickling Michael’s chin.

“Ray. Hey, thumper, wake up,” Michael said as he prodded Ray in the side, making the rabbit wake with a jolt. 

“Michael? Michael, I’m so sorry, please don’t hate me-” and Ray then spewed a mass of syllables and attempts at words, all said as if he were on the verge of tears.

“Woah, Ray, calm down. It’s fine,” Michael cut his boyfriend off, curling a hand around one of Ray’s ears and scratching lightly, something that always calmed him down. “Where’s everyone else?” the cat asked, sitting himself up, just the feel his head throb in disagreement with the movement.

“Getting dinner ready. Oh fuck, I was meant to get Geoff when you woke up,” Ray squeaked, hopping out of bed and bounding across the room and out the door, calling out for their oldest boyfriend. Less than a minute later, the entire house was in the bedroom, crowding around Michael with concerned expressions on their faces.

“How do you feel?” Geoff asked simply, checking the gash on the back of Michael’s head.

“Fine. Head hurts,” Michael replied, wincing a little when Geoff’s fingers brushed over a particularly sensitive part.

“We’ve got dinner ready, if you feel like eating,” Geoff offered. At the mention of food, Michael jerked, leaning forward and holding up a hand to his mouth. Concerned questions quickly turned into grossed out noises when the lad heaved and vomit trickled down his hands from the spaces between his fingers. Ryan dived forward, doing the only thing he could think to do, which was rubbing Michaels back and whispering reassurances while the heaving continued, his hand now moved and nothing to stop him from saturating the sheets covering his legs. His tail twitched and flicked around behind him, freed when Michael had leaned forward.

“I don’t think he’s hungry,” Jack said when it looked like he was finished, receiving a few ‘duh’ looks from around the room. 

“Come on, we’ll get you cleaned up and you can at least come and watch a movie with us. We need to keep an eye on you anyway. Make sure you don’t go into a coma or something,” Ryan said, pressing a light kiss to Michael’s forehead as he helped the curly haired cat out of bed and towards the bathroom, washing his hands and mouth out in the sink.

After a lot of apologies (despite Michael’s lengthy and numerous assurances that they weren’t to blame) and finally some cuddling on the couch in front of a movie, Michael explained why he didn’t go swimming and didn’t even take baths and that just made everyone feel a little more guilty. Again, despite Michael’s loud disagreement with their ‘dumbass self-guilt-trips’, Ryan apologised, Ray cuddled up to his back and scratched _that spot_ at the back of his ears, being careful to steer clear of the wound site; and the others just let their guilt at letting the teasing continue rest in the air. 

“If you keep doing that, I’m gonna pass out or fuck you, but i’m too tired to fuck you.” Michael mumbled sleepily, raising his arm to bat Ray away but only managing to get it a few inches off Geoff’s chest, which vibrated under his touch with rough chuckles, before it flopped back down. 

“Go back to sleep, love, we’ll still be here when you wake up.” Ray whispered into his ear, resting his head on the top of Michael’s soft curls while keeping up the rhythmic caress.

Letting the touch take him under again, Michael did sleep again, in the arms of his boys and never feeling safer.


End file.
